CDC clears flu vaccine of causing infant girl's death

TAIPEI--The sudden death of an 11-month-old baby girl in Taichung early this month was not caused by a shot of flu vaccine but by myocarditis, an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Saturday.

An autopsy by the Institute of Forensic Medicine under the Ministry of Justice indicates that the infant was suffering from sub-acute viral myocarditis, which damaged cells and led to cardiac muscle hypertrophy, according to the CDC.

The inflammation is believed to have started one or two weeks before the infant's death Oct. 6, one day after she was given a shot of flu vaccine, the agency said, ruling out the vaccine as cause of death.